Crowds of spectators gathered to watch as workers finally removed the city bus that had been lodged into a Prospect Lefferts Gardens townhouse for four days.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority towed the B49 bus out of the historic home on the corner of Lincoln Road and Bedford Avenue shortly after 11 am on June 11, while a crowd of dozens of locals and reporters looked on and took videos.
“It’s something new, it’s different, it’s exciting to see something like this in the neighborhood,” said Flatbush resident Tamra Sangster, who stopped by to watch the bus get yanked out of the building. “As soon as the city opened up we go through this…it’s something out of a movie.”
The bus crashed into the Lincoln Road townhouse on June 7, when an MTA driver lost control of it — later telling witnesses his foot was stuck between the brake and the accelerator. The crash sent over a dozen people to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The vehicle remained lodged in the building and covered with a sidewalk shed while Department of Buildings Inspectors worked to determine the stability of the structure, which had an internal load-bearing wall damaged during the crash and was deemed unsafe for occupation.
Department of Buildings workers finished shoring-up the building on June 10, giving the go-ahead to the MTA to make arrangements to move the bus, using a sizable Mack tow truck.
The building remained stable while the bus was removed, with only a small bit of debris coming loose once it was unlodged.
https://twitter.com/verde_nyc/status/1403374757979041801?s=20
Crowds applauded while the vehicle was moved, and a “move that bus!” chant was started as the tow truck pulled it down Bedford Avenue, bringing it to a rest in the middle of the road and offering a glimpse for the first time at the badly damaged front of the vehicle, which had its entire windshield shattered during the crash.
“This is better than the playoffs,” one onlooker said.
People are swarming the bus for photos, absolute incredible spectacle pic.twitter.com/hvBXi1aXK3
— ben (@meatballmuligan) June 11, 2021
Lincoln Road residents said crashes along Bedford Avenue are common, with the same house hit by a car roughly 20 years ago, but the spectacle of the vehicle was something new.
“It’s a miracle no one was killed,” said Andrea Clarke, looking on at the shattered bus after it was removed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
